From Most Wanted to Most Trusted: The Double Life of a Law Enforcement Informant

Aug 19, 2025

What if the people we locked away for drug crimes were running million-dollar trafficking empires—from behind bars?

In this explosive episode, we sit down with Benjamin Freedland—once a mid-level trafficker moving hundreds of pounds of marijuana and deeply embedded in a cartel’s East Coast operation. After flipping and working undercover with the FBI, DEA, and U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Freedland now trains law enforcement on how to recruit and manage high-level informants.

But this story isn't about redemption—it’s a chilling look at the new face of the fentanyl crisis. Freedland reveals how America’s correctional system has become a breeding ground for synthetic drugs and organized crime.

This episode will challenge everything you think you know about law enforcement, cooperation, and the systemic failures that keep the opioid epidemic alive.

We discuss:

Prisons are ground zero for synthetic drug trafficking, especially K2 and fentanyl-laced substances.
Old-school “tough cop” methods backfire when recruiting reliable informants—respect wins.
The criminal justice system needs a radical overhaul to disrupt the fentanyl pipeline—starting with how we train officers.

Listen and subscribe on your favorite podcast player:

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Views expressed in this material are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Rigaku Analytical Devices.

To make sure you never miss an episode of The Opioid Matrix, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the website, or your favorite podcast player here: https://plinkhq.com/i/1625927161?to=page

Michael Brown

Michael W. Brown is the global director of counter-narcotics technology at Rigaku Analytical Devices. He has a distinguished career spanning more than 32 years as a Special Agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). He served as the country attaché in India and Myanmar; During his tour in Myanmar, he provided foreign advisory support for counter narcotic enforcement that, to date, has resulted in the interdiction of over US$250 million in precursor chemicals and implementing the regions first use of Raman spectroscopy to degrade the supply chain for narcotics production. He was also part of a special specialized counter narcotics unit operating in the jungles of South America tasked with locating and destroying drug labs and narcotic supply chains. Most recently he was the DEA Headquarters staff coordinator for the Office of Foreign Operations for the Middle East-Europe-Afghanistan-India. Michael is a graduate of the United States Ranger Training Battalion and has a master’s degree in interdisciplinary technology and management from the University of Eastern Michigan.

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